So you've got your hero. He practically has a giant neon sign over his head that says he's a hero. It might be subtle, but it's fairly obvious you've found the guy who'll save the day, get the girl, and live a long and hap — what the? Did he just get bitten in half by a mutant T. Rex?

What happens next is the guy we perceive as The Lancer, Side Kick, or even a fringe loner takes center stage as the real protagonist (maybe even Hero). Usually they reveal a much greater level of personal integrity and strength of will than previously thought.

Note that this does not necessarily involve the death of the initial protagonist, although that is often how this trope expresses itself. If the target dies, they're often a Sacrificial Lion. If the character truly was The Hero, (but not the protagonist, maybe) see Take Up My Sword. Also see Dead Star Walking. Compare Quickly Demoted Leader, when the secondary character does the heavy lifting only for the hero to take control.

Examples:

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Anime and Manga

Despite featuring an Ensemble Cast, Naoki Urasawa's 20th Century Boys has Kenji Endo at the center of the story for the first five volumes or so, when he apparently dies in an explosion. One Time Skip later the focus shifts to his teenage niece Kanna as she attempts to finish what he started. however, in a surprising twist, Kenji comes back at the start of the third act.

Takashi of All Rounder Meguru is clearly the star of the prologue, and his storyline is the heaviest and most dramatic element of the series, but Meguru's the one with his name in the title.

Arachnid begins with Kumo the assassin kidnapping an orphan named Alice to make her into his apprentice. She soon comes to respect and regard him as her father, only to be forced into a fight to the death because Kumo actually wanted her to kill him and inherit his abilities.

The first chapter of Arata Kangatari and its debut cover page on the magazine it's serialized in would have you believe that Amawakuni Arata is the main character, but he isn't - it's Hinohara Arata, who's not even on said cover.

Subverted with Eren in Attack on Titan. He's maimed and eaten in the first major battle while trying to save his friend Armin, which seems like the perfect start to a Stuffed into the Fridge scenario to motivate the more skilled Mikasa or stir then cowardly Armin to heroism, until it's revealed that Eren is a Titan Shifter and escapes; this becomes a major plot point.

In a way, he is this to Historia. Not only is she the true heir to the monarchy of the walls; but the very powers Eren possess rightfully belongs to the Reiss bloodline to begin with, meaning, his powers were meant for her. This leads to his Heroic B.S.O.D. as he starts to think himself as worthless and in the way of what should have been Historia's quest of slaughtering Titans and not his, until she snaps him out of it.

In an overall sense, even after coming back as a Titan, Eren has been mostly out of focus and he mostly seems to serve as The Big Guy. The cast seems to function more in an ensemble with plenty of different view points just as important (if not more) as Eren's.

Played with in Baccano!, where Carol insists that Firo is the protagonist because he's "main character-ish." Given the deliberatelydisjointed nature of the series (in the anime anyway, the source books are much more chronological), as well as the ridiculously huge cast of "main" characters, she manages to be completely right and way off the mark at the same time.

If one defined "main character" based on screen time alone, Isaac and Miria would fit. They are also the only ones to show up in every single timeline (except for in 1711).

In Basara, everyone thinks that a boy named Tatara is The Chosen One—he fits the prophecy to a T—until the king he’s supposed to overthrow hears about him, rides in, and takes his head from his shoulders. Tatara's twin sister Sarasa, who grew up in her brother’s shadow and has basically been forgotten about by almost everyone, rises up to take his place. Literally.

Aaaaand while we're on Urasawa, Billy Bat now has the death of Kevin Yamagata, after which Kevin Goodman takes over as the true protagonist.

The sequel to Black Butler sets up Alois Trancy and Claude Faustus as the new Master and Butler duo, until Sebastian comes back, and Ciel is brought back to life. All in the first episode. After all of the marketing A-1 Pictures has done for Alois and Claude, it turns out that it was done to hide the fact that Sebastian and Ciel would be returning. Bravo.

Waku from Bokurano is presented in a way that couldn't be mistaken for anything other than the classic Hot-Blooded shonen Kid Hero. At least until he dies after piloting the robot in the second episode (first volume of the manga).

In Nobuhiro Watsuki's Crescent Moon in the Warring States, the protagonist is actually Isshinta, not Hiko Seijuro as many readers believe.

In The Daughter of Twenty Faces, the audience is lead to believe that the main characters are the crew of sympathetic thieves that Chizuko hooks up with. Then comes Episodes 6 and 7, where most of the thieves are killed and Chizuko is sent back to Japan. It's there that we meet Chizuko's real supporting cast; Shunka and Tome.

From the same author of Baccano!, Durarara!! has Mikado Ryuugamine who may look like he's the protagonist because he was the focus for the first episode. You might be thinking "huh, so we get to see Ikebukuro from the eyes of a Naïve Newcomer". Until you see his biggest secret.Word of God says that Celty is the protagonist of the series, not Mikado.

Emerging: Since she appears on the cover and since the first chapter revolves around her, it's very easy to mistake Akari for the series' protagonist. She gets infected with the disease at the very beginning of the story, and from then until the very end does nothing except lying in her hospital bed looking miserable. Her family doctor becomes the hero.

The demon-hunting squad you're introduced to in the first episode of Ga-Rei -Zero-. They're all distinctive, have some interesting chemistry and seem like a skilled bunch. They all die. At the end of that very same episode. They were included on promotional material

Ginga: Nagareboshi Gin started out with Daisuke as the protagonist and was your typical A Boy and His X story. Eight episodes in it had a Genre Shift when the attention changed to his dog, Gin, and Gin ran off to join a pack of feral dogs. Daisuke doesn't appear again until the tail end of the series and is nowhere in the sequel anime.

Henrietta is very obviously the main character for Gunslinger Girl. As the series goes on however Triela is given noticeably more and more spotlight while Henrietta becomes more of a side character. Henrietta is in fact the second major girl to die and Triela is the last.

In Jewelpet Kira Deco, Retsu seems like the typical hero: he's Hot-Blooded, he's the leader of his Sentai team, he's front and center, he gets the color red, he's the first to introduce himself. But it's Pink, The Chick, whom the story revolves around.

Keyman is the title character in Keyman: The Hand of Judgement, but he gets killed by the end of the first chapter. For the rest of the story we follow wDetective Alex, an anthropomorphic T. rex, as he tries to solve the murder case.

Legend of Galactic Heroes has two main characters: Reinhard von Lohengramm of the The Empire and Yang Wenli of The Alliance. While Yang Wenli IS the most important character of the democratic cast, he's assassinated three-quarters of the way through - completely changing the dynamic of the show. Yang's protégée Julian succeeds him in the last season while Reinhard is a protagonist throughout.

The majorly Broken Base of Mobile Suit Gundam SEED Destiny always seems to be fighting over the problem of who exactly the main character was. While Shinn Asuka gets all the best combat scenes, pilots a Gundam painted in the traditional white/blue/red/yellow color scheme usually used to signify a main character, and is front and center in most promotional material for the show; the Older and WiserKira Yamato takes Shinn's place as the front-and-center character halfway through the show and is portrayed as having the moral high ground over Shinn, who is supporting a character whose stated goal is the elimination of The Evils of Free Will. A fairly famous Flip-Flop of God has named Athrun Zala, a character who goes from being Shinn's mentor to Kira's Lancer around the point that the change in perspective happens as the main character of the story. While there has been much Fan Wank over this idea, citing it as an Ass Pull, it does make some sense in context; as A) a large amount of the story is dedicated to Athrun's crisis of faith over having to side with his former ZAFT comrades against The Kingdom he defected to in the previous series (due to said kingdom deciding to give in to the corrupt Federation), B) The change in series' perspective from pro-ZAFT to pro-Three Ships Alliance comes around the time when Athrun had learned of the Big Bad's master plan and jumped ship to rejoin Kira in hopes of stopping him, and C) Athrun is the one who engages and defeats Shinn (who by this point had become a very dangerous Dragon) in very emotional single combat right before the end of the war (Kira meanwhile, is busy curbstomping the local Evil Genius).

It doesn't help that Shinn eventually gets the titular Destiny Gundam as his Mid-Season Upgrade.

Also, the Destiny TV Movies were narrated from Athrun's point of view.

In the credits for Destiny, Shinn was billed first for the first 47 episodes, with Athrun getting second billing. For the final three episodes and Final Plus, Kira received top billing and Shinn was knocked down to third billing. For the TV Movies, Athrun received top billing, and Shinn was billed second.

Perhaps it's best to say that Shinn and Athrun split the role of "Main Character"; their contrasting viewpoints, and eventual conflict, driving the story and it's themes.

While we're on the subject of Naoki Urasawa, Richard Braun is this for Monster. Not an entirely straight example, because he isn't this way for the series as a whole, just for an arc that takes up volumes 5-9. Still for that arc, this trope definitely applies.

Paulie in the Water 7 Arc of One Piece. The Straw Hats have come to Water 7, home of the world's best carpenters, in search of a shipwright for their crew, and Paulie happens to be the best shipwright at the largest shipwright company on the island. He has a very well-devolped fighting style involving the use of rigging ropes and the amusing personality quirk of being constantly in debt. We learn of a better shipwright, Franky, who supposedly betrayed the company, but he's said up as the arc's villain, making it a surprise when, as the arc proceeds, he receives a tragic past, a connection to the series' Myth Arc, and a quirky fighting style of his own. Guess who ends up joining?.

And back to Urasawa, Plutotells the story mostly from Gesicht's point of view for the first six volumes - up until his murder. Epsilon and then Atom take on the mantle of the hero, though Gesicht's memories play a role in the final confrontation against Pluto.

The first episode of Popotan starts out with Daichi discovering the real protagonists' mansion as he explores a field. He walks inside... It's dark, and lit only by a Christmas tree... Suddenly, "UNA!" He runs into the hallway, having been startled by Unagi, and runs into the bathroom door as Ai comes out wearing only a towel. It's from here on that we meet all the real protagonists as he frantically attempts to flee the house. He is present during the last minute of the episode, after the girls leave, but is only ever seen again in episode 7 (as an adult, except for flashbacks) and the last episode (when Ai travels back to the time she and her sisters first met him).

Puella Magi Oriko Magica, had an odd case. For starters, the title character isn't even on the cover of the first volume. In fact, it's an Antagonist Title; Oriko is the villain. The real protagonists, at least in the first volume, are Kyouko and Yuma, the girl who actually was on the cover. Mami functions as a secondary protagonist. And then in the second volume, Homurabecomes the protagonist.

The First Episode of Shiki follows Megumi as the central character and her life around the village. She's dead by the end of the episode

Sket Dance begins with Teppei's first day in his new school and meeting the eponymous Sket-dan. Then the chapter ends and he never appears again aside from a few cameos.

In the second "season" of Takemitsu Zamurai, a bandit leader named "Glass-eyed Tetsuzo" is set up to be the new antagonist after landing in jail. Unfortunately he's Too Dumb to Live and kicks previous antagonist Kikuchi awake. The next morning, Tetsuzo is found with his head twisted off and Kikuchi is now the owner of a pretty marble, which he eventually uses to burn the prison down and escape.

Some viewers didn't realize Kamina wasn't the central protagonist of Tengen Toppa Gurren Lagann until his death in Episode 8. It turns out that Simon is the main character.

Double subverted in The Tower of Druaga. Neeba is shown to be the leader of his group early on with Jil showing up as a mysterious badass... who then gets knocked out within five seconds of first encountering an enemy and has a sort of goofy flashback for most of the first episode about how his journey started... which turns out to be a dream while the rest of his party saves him. His brother, Neeba is seems to be the real hero, for much of the early show. Then his brother turns out to be the Fake Ultimate Hero, and the second arc supplants him with Jil.

For the first dozen volumes of the manga and all of the anime, Tsubasa Reservoir Chronicle seems to be a typical shounen series about strength and determination, centering on typical shounen hero Syaoran with the other characters in supporting roles. However, that changed when Syaoran turned out to be a clone and puppet of the Big Bad, splitting off from the party and going to wreak evil havoc. At that point the focus of the series switched to former motivational love interest Sakura, at least until SHE died several volumes later.

Clone Syaoran can still be considered to be the main protagonist for the first half.

In Vexille, the first half of the movie is spent with Vexille, who's part of a force that's about to stage a covert operation against an isolationist nation. The second half of the film reveals the protagonist to be Maria, a character who wasn't introduced in the first half. Indeed, pretty much everything Vexille was trying to do didn't matter at all. Maria's the one who knows what the stakes are, has devised a plan to thwart the villain, and has gathered together a group of people to execute said plan. She has a direct and personal connection to the villain, as well as people on her side who she has to work against to gather resources and manpower to pull off her scheme. The story in the second half continues to be told from Vexille's point of view, yet her main contribution is to have things explained to. And to pilot the Mecha.

In The World Is Mine, we meet the two Villain ProtagonistsToshiya and Mon driving down the highway, with Mon having sex with a flashy-looking high school girl. She describes herself to the audience as if she'll be the protagonist ("My name is Miho, seventeen years old, love sex!") and is then pushed out of the car into oncoming traffic. The real female protagonist is a plain-looking girl and one of the few people that Mon doesn't want to rape or kill (Mon actually curls up into her lap and falls asleep like Berserker Rage Ranma).

In Yoku Wakaru Gendai Mahou Yumiko has the focus in the First Episode until its shown that Koyomi is The Main Character.

A running joke in Yuru-Yuri, where 'main character' Akari worries constantly on her complete lack of screen time, character traits, and presence. Although she leads the opening segment, she's always interrupted, ignored, or distracted by something. Once or twice, she only appears to tell the audience that she won't be in the rest of the episode.

A non-fatal example in the Department of Monsterology comics. We are initially introduced to Emma Hampton and Team Challenger and are led to believe that they are going to be the main protagonists(with The Hero being the Naïve Newcomer Emma Hampton). However, after their initial scene, one of them mentions Team Carnacki who then become the main protagonists, with Team Challenger being Demoted to Extra afterwards.

The two body-jumping villains appear to be set up as the Big Bad Duumvirate, or at least as major antagonists. They ultimately turn out to be Decoy Antagonists, and are defeated by the end of the initial story arc.

Similarly, Gaiman's The Sandman gave us a Decoy Antagonist with Roderick Burgess, the warlock who imprisons Dream in the first issue. He seems to be set up as the Big Bad, or at least as a major antagonist. Then it turns out that the first issue spans 70 freakin' years. By the end of issue #1, Burgess has died of old age, and his son Alex is a harmless, senile old man. After Dream escapes, he leaves him in a permanent nightmare and never sees him again.

The comic begins with a human thinking he's the Last of His Kind after the Earth is destroyed. He's killed on page 3 by a much larger alien right before the real protagonist, Shakara the Avenger, is introduced.

A later issue introduces two tomb raiders who team up to find the lost treasure of the Shakara homeworld. After facing many perils, they're unceremoniously shot by Buggerian mercenaries.

Used to great effect in Origin, in which it turns out that the kid who looks like a young Wolverine, is nicknamed "Dog", and has the surname "Logan", isn't the one who grows up to be Wolverine. The real young Wolverine is actually James Howlett, who starts out as a sickly rich kid living in a manor house in Alberta—though Dog is heavily implied to be his half-brother (and may or may not be connected to Sabretooth in some way).

The Mask comics is a very good example of this. Stanley may be the first person to wear the Artifact of Doom but he is not the main character. It is debatable after the 2nd series of books whether the wearer of the mask is the main character or if it is Kellaway (the Sympathetic Inspector Antagonist). And Big Head is just the Big Bad.

The first Azrael miniseries begins with what appears to be the title character being shot and killed in the first few pages. As it turns out, this was the main character's father and the mantle is a Legacy Character.

James Robinson's Star Man series had a similar opening with a superhero being killed in the first two pages, only for his brother to take up the mantle.

In a third act switch, Archangel Cameron in Archangels: The Saga. He's the main character for the first seven issues and for the epilogue of the 9th, but in Issues 8 and 9, the famous archangel Michael is summoned by God to issue the Big Bad's final defeat and he becomes the new focus character.

In the Ultimate Marvel universe Ray Connor, the kid who takes up the Daredevil identity after the death of Matt Murdock. We're given an issue dealing with his origin and background and the book makes it seem like he's being positioned as a major character in the mold of previous Legacy Characters...but then at the end of said issue, he gets bitten by a vampire.

Transformers: Wings of Honor: Follows Metalhawk's group (with The Hero being the Naïve Newcomer Dion), and Onslaught's in their war against the growing Decepticon uprising lead by Deathsaurus. In the final few comics, Onslaught's team reneges, and kills half of Metalhawk's team, with Dion defeating their combined form. Then the protagonist switches to Magnum, the leader of the Elite guard which Onslaught and his men wiped out. He and the rest of the survivors, including Dion, fight Deathsaurus and beat him. Deathsaurus turns out to be a Decoy Antagonist, and is beaten and overthrown by the true antagonist Megatron. Megatron leads an attack on the Autobots, fatally shooting Dion and Magnum. Alpha Trion takes them, and rebuilds Ultra Magnus from one of them, while the other dies, and Ultra Magnus welcomes the true hero of the war, Optimus Prime.

In Noob, being the player whose Day in the Life is shown at the beginning doesn't guarantee being the focus for the rest of the comic.

Steam Wars makes us think that it'll focus on the Luke Skywalker Expy, Beauregard Baron, will be the main character. In truth though it's actually the Princess Leia Expy, Duchess Imoen.

Bitch Planet #1 follows Marian Collins as she is transported to the titular prison for "non-compliant" women...until her death at the end of the issue, which brings the real protagonist of the series into focus.

Southern Bastards builds up Earl Tubbs as the protagonist of the series for the first few issues, focusing on him being the only man to stand up to crooked Coach Eustass Boss and his cronies. He's killed by Boss at the end of the first storyarc, who takes over as the Villain Protagonist of the whole story.

The DC Rebirth era Superwoman series was promoted as a series following the New 52 Lois Lane after she got some of the New 52 Superman's powers. She dies at the end of the first issue and the real central character is Lana Lang, who got a different powerset.

Fan Works

In 72 Hours, Nick Savini and Tamyra Carpenter are set up as the protagonists and main couple...up until the fourth chapter, where Nick unwittingly blows himself up and Tamyra gets shot in the heart.

Marty in No Antidote. He's only really there to tie the Pokemon in his team (including the real protagonist, Bulbasaur) together.

Connor Russell in the Slender Man ficBy the Fire's Light starts as our first viewpoint protagonist, but dies in short order. He ends up being replaced by Detective Carl Rourke and Mira Grolinsky.

The End of Ends focuses on Beast Boy for a while before he runs away and gets killed. Then it focuses on the Titans and Doom Patrol.

There is an entire community of Harry Potter fanfic authors out there who believe that Harry Potter himself is actually the Decoy Protagonist of the series, and that the True Hero of the story is Hermione Granger. They refer to Harry as a "front kick" (that is, a sidekick who is presented as the hero), and are huge fans of the Ron the Death Eater trope, usually making Ron Weasley either stupid, evil or stupidly evil.

The 91st Annual Hunger Games does this. Initially it opens up focusing on Wesley Togsiala, before Act 2 opens up and the POV suddenly shifts to his sister Aveline. Given the nature of the Hunger Games, it's no mystery as to why this happens.

Films — Animation

Most people assume that Aurora is the protagonist of Disney's Sleeping Beauty and get annoyed that she is so underdeveloped. It was planned for her to be a protagonist, but the final film has the three fairies as the protagonists and basically do most of the stuff for both Aurora and Phillip.

The first few minutes of Delhi Safari follow Sultan and his family of leopards. But he's killed off very quickly by hunters, which triggers the real protagonists into heading to Delhi.

A deleted opening for Atlantis: The Lost Empire was actually going to make a team of Vikings the main characters of the movie. Cue the Leviathan sinking their ship, killing said Vikings, and causing the Shepherd's Journal to float away into the Atlantic Ocean...

My Little Pony: Equestria Girls – Rainbow Rocks may have Twilight Sparkle as the main star and the front cover, but it was SunsetShimmer who saved the day. Lampshaded by one of the movie's writers, who commented that she was originally writing the story to simply feature Twilight saving the day yet again, before ultimately realizing that Sunset's character arc made her the far better candidate.

Films — Live-Action

The Trope Codifier (if not the Trope Maker) and easily the most famous example is Psycho. Marion Crane is set up as the main character through the first half of the film. Then she takes a shower. She's the reason Hitchcock asked for a "no late admission" policy, as he thought that if people entered the theater late and never saw the star actress Janet Leigh, they would feel cheated. Leigh's agent didn't want her to take the role because of how quickly the screen time ended. Leigh's response was "Ah, but who are they talking about the rest of the film?"

Hostel primarily focuses on Josh, the nice, shy, virginal guy for most the film before killing him and revealing Paxton, who'd be among the first to die in most horror movies, as the lead and survivor. The second movie does this for Paxton, setting him up to be the protagonist and quite possibly trying to take down the organization after what he suffered in the first movie. Instead, he gets his head chopped off five minutes in.

In Fargo, Jerry Lundegaard seems to be the main character, as would be typical for the Coen brothers' ordinary-schmuck-commits-a-crime-gone-wrong genre, until Marge Gunderson is introduced about a half hour into the film.

The Godfather: Marlon Brando had star billing and a Best Actor Oscar for his role as Vito Corleone, but he was gunned down less than forty minutes in and spent a good deal of the rest of the film lying in a hospital bed before dying of a heart attack. His son Michael was the hero of the film. Similarly, the second movie initially appears to be about Vito's character, but once again Michael ends up being more the protagonist and Vito eventually drops out of the narrative.

Quentin Tarantino takes this to the point of having an entire decoy cast in the Grindhouse film Death Proof. Half of the movie focuses on a bunch of characters where they very distinctly focus on one character who just screamsFinal Girl only for her and all of the characters introduced to be killed off all at once. After that the rest of the movie focuses on a completely different bunch of characters in a completely different area, and filmed in a completely different style. It was like watching a sequel to the movie in the middle of the first one!

In the original Alien movie, Sigourney Weaver's Ripley was not played as the main protagonist. For the first half of the movie, the presumptive lead was Captain Dallas AKA Victim #3. In fact, Sigourney Weaver was probably the least famous actor in the cast. John Hurt, the most established actor, dies first in the iconic Chest Burster scene.

Alderson in Cube. The beginning of the movie shows him getting up and beginning to explore his surroundings... only to be unexpectedly sliced into cubes moments later. The movie pulls it again by making Quentin look like the heroic protective leader-type within the group before pulling a Face–Heel Turn. Worth, who initially appears to be an Anti-Hero, eventually steps up to be the true protector of the survivors.

In Deep Blue Sea, the adventurer/executive played by Samuel L. Jackson gets bitten in half by a shark. And later, Saffron Burrows who got billing as the lead character, is the only character on the cover and posters and looking like the presumed Final Girl... gets eaten. It wasn't written that way, but the test audiences felt she shouldn't survive after causing that much death.

Sarge in the Doom movie has a psychotic break and later (for unrelated reasons) turns into a demon. He even lampshades this when he is caught by the demons and shouts out "I'm not supposed to die!", because he assumed he was the main character..

The Friday the 13th (2009)Continuity Reboot has a group of teens slaughtered by Jason in the beginning and then introduces another group of teens including obvious Final Girl Jenna. Jenna is the Decoy Protagonist and is abruptly killed off twenty minutes before the end. The actual Final Girl is Whitney, one of the girls from the first group whom Jason took alive.

The first Feast movie has the characters named "Hero" (Life Expectancy: Pretty Good. Occupation: Kicking Ass) and "Heroine" (Occupation: Wear tanktops, tote shotgun, save day. LIFE EXPECTANCY: Hopefully Better Than The Last Hero) both end up dying, the former a few minutes after being introduced. The second Heroine (Occupation: Career waitress, single mom. Life Expectancy: Expects nothing from life. upgraded to Occupation: Heroine #2. Life Expectancy: Let's hope for the best) is the one to make it through, even after her son is eaten. Needless to say, this movie loves subverting the Sorting Algorithm of Mortality.

Jim Ogilvie in the first of The Stepfather films. He spends most of the film looking for his sister's killer and in the end, when he does finally find the stepfather, he's knifed in the stomach before he can even pull his gun out.

Lucius Hunt is clearly the protagonist of The Village, right up until he is stabbed viciously and his blind girlfriend Ivy must make the journey to rescue him that takes up the rest of the film. Notably, this is the only plot twist in the film that isn't telegraphed very early on and actually feels twisty as a result.

A rare third-act POV switch in Death Becomes Her: Bruce Willis's character takes over as the protagonist, leaving the previous main characters played by Meryl Streep and Goldie Hawn sidelined until the movie's coda.

In the first movie we're introduced to Freddy through Tina Grey's dreams, hearing about Tina's fears in regards to the nightmares, and generally being led to believe that this movie will be about Tina's escape from Freddy. And then Tina becomes Freddy's very first victim, and focus soon shifts to Nancy, the true main character of the film.

Part four starts out focusing on Kristen, the protagonist of the previous film, but she is rather quickly killed off and focus completely shifts to her schoolmate Alice. In her debut film, the focus quickly shifts to Nancy, The Hero of the first film. While Nancy does get killed off, it happens at the end of the movie.

In Freddy's Dead: The Final Nightmare the apparent main character confronts Freddy, telling him that he knows that he's his son. He promptly learns, the hard way, that Freddy had a daughter.

The 2010 remake employs a use of this trope. Kris is actually the second victim but most of the first twenty minutes focus on her and the actual heroine, though already introduced only becomes important after Kris is killed. This works significantly less well considering the real heroine Nancy shares the same name as the original's heroine

In another Wes Craven film, the trailer for the first Scream movie had audiences assuming that Drew Barrymore's character Casey was a main character. She's killed in the first ten minutes.

Played with in Scream 4. Jill is set up as an Expy of her cousin Sidney, her actions mirroring those of Sidney in the first film, and everything seems to be on the way for her to become the Final Girl. Turns out she's the killer.

A Perfect Getaway. The seeming main characters are not only not the protagonists, they turn out to be the villains. The actual protagonists only show up twenty to thirty minutes into the film.

The Spectre Of Freedom by Luis Buñuel does this repeatedly. (If you can call the characters protagonists in the first place...)

Ilios from Lucio Fulci's Conquest is The Chosen One, possesses one of the few bows in the film's world, and is on The Quest. He tends to screw up and gets rescued by his sidekick, Maxz. And then the minions of the Big Bad kill him and Maxz takes up his bow, completing the quest.

During the first 1/2 hour of The Boys from Brazil, it seems pretty clear that Barry (Steve Guttenberg) is the main character. Then he has a run in with some Nazis...

The slasher flick/cop movie Maniac Cop 2 focuses largely on the two survivors of the previous film, who get killed before the film is halfway through.

The opening scene of The Hurt Locker focuses on Thompson, played by Guy Pearce, who seems to be the hero until he dies and gets replaced with the real main character.

Unless you had seen the poster or trailer for the first Bring It On movie, the opening sequence would lead you to believe that Big Red is the main character. Then, mid-song, the focus shifts to Torrance. Granted, Torrance is there in the first part of the song too, but she's off to the side or in the background. No one dies, but it otherwise fits this trope.

At the end of Sucker Punch, the protagonist Baby Doll has a revelation that the movie isn't actually her story at all, but actually Sweet Pea's. She sacrifices her own freedom for Sweet Pea once she realizes she was only ever meant to be the catalyst for Sweet Pea's escape from the mental asylum. Unless you view the movie as a nested series of traumatic dissociation within Baby Doll's own mind, in which case all the other girls we see in the Burlesque and High Fantasy scenes are fractured aspects of her consciousness, which kinda changes the entire meaning of the film.

The horror movie Scarecrow 2 started off with an older farmer telling a flashbacked story about how the titular monster murdered his father when he was a kid to a reporter. It sets up as if he's (one of) the main protagonist(s), but he's chopped up by the scarecrow to the point of Ludicrous Gibs while handcuffed to a hospital bed within 20 minutes of the opening credits.

Watch the first hour of The Return (2003), and it's pretty clear that Ivan is the main character. Watch the final 20 minutes, and it's pretty clear that Andrei has taken over the role. According to Word of God, Andrei was the main character for the entire movie, but was metaphorically "hidden in the shadows" up until that point.

In Blindness, it might appear at first the movie's main character would be the Japanese man, or the Doctor, but after a while it is made clear that the Doctor's Wife is the real main character of the story.

In One Day, given that the movie, at first, appears to focus primarily on Emma, she appears to be the protagonist. However, with about fifteen minutes of the film to go, she gets hit by a truck and dies, completely transferring the focus to Dexter.

In MacGruber, the title character assembles a super-team of secret agents. They are then promptly packed into a car and blown up, to be replaced by a rag-tag team consisting of MacGruber, Vicki St. Elmo and Dixon Piper.

A superhero appears at the beginning of Kick-Ass, prepared to make the dive of a skyscraper. He's hailed by a bad-ass soundtrack and the voice-over about superheroes. He dies from the fall. And the movie moves on. Turns out he was just some random crazy person.

Mike from Killer Klowns from Outer Space. He survives the whole movie, but his role as The Hero is usurped early on by Dave the policeman, who becomes the only character in the entire film to kill any of the klowns, and he never gets it back.

Done surprisingly well in Bollywood movie Dum Maaro Dum where the whole movie focuses on ACP Vishnu Kamath((Abhishek Bachchan)'s attempts to root out the drug traffickers. He suddenly gets killed by a corrupt cop about 3/4th into the movie and a supporting character DJ Joki(played by debutante Rana Daggubati) assumes the lead role and ends up foiling the Big Bad's plan

Although Jamie is clearly the main protagonist in Halloween 5: The Revenge of Michael Myers, we're led to believe that Rachel will once again be at her side for the duration. She's one of the earliest victims in the film. Then, the annoying girl who you'd expect to die first (Tina) ends up outliving her friends (bar Jamie).

Laurie Strode in Halloween: Resurrection. After being the main protagonist in 3 films, she's the first victim in the final outing.

The President's daughter from Spy Kids 2, whose prologue made the film look like if it was actually about her and her adventures at an amusement park full of wacky CGI rides.

Viggo Mortensen's character in Daylight, an adventurer who becomes the de-facto leader of the survivors, is killed while trying to look for an exit of the collapsed tunnel, coincidentally just as Sylvester Stallone's character arrives.

The prequel trilogy is about Anakin Skywalker but he doesn't actually appear until half way through the first movie. For most of The Phantom Menace Qui-Gon Jinn seems like the main character.

Finn is made out to be the de facto hero in The Force Awakens trailers and marketing, what with him wielding Anakin's lightsaber and all. While he does get a lot of focus, he ultimately takes on the role of the Deuteragonist, with Rey who is ultimately the Hero. While Finn does use the lightsaber, he's pretty clumsy with it and is nearly killed by Kylo Ren when they duel at the climax of the film, with Rey ultimately felling him. In fact, Maz gave the lightsaber to Finn so he could give it to Rey, as she initially rejected it after a series of terrifying visions which implied that becoming a Jedi was her destiny. It's entirely possible that Finn is Force sensitive like the marketing implies, though it's never explicitly stated in the film itself that he is.

With A New Hope, Luke Skywalker doesn't appear until around 20 minutes in. C-3PO and R2-D2 are the focus of the movie until then.

Luke can actually be seen as the Decoy Protagonist of the saga as a whole: he's clearly set up as the hero of the original trilogy, but when viewed alongside the prequel trilogy, it becomes clear that the series is actually about his father Anakin's rise, fall, and eventual redemption.

Silver Tongues opens with Rachel and Alex, a newly married and already fraying young couple on their tense honeymoon. A few minutes in they run into a couple in their 40s and have dinner with them. The older couple turn out to be con artists who trick Rachel and Alex into believing they are swingers, manipulate the frustrations the younger couple have and leave the newlyweds with a seemingly broken marriage. The plot then sticks with the con artists as they run into other people - Rachel and Alex are never seen or mentioned again after the first act.

In Bram Stoker's Dracula, Jonathan Harker appears to be the heroic protagonist for the first quarter until the focus shifts to his fiancee Mina for the rest of the film and Jonathan fades into the background as a supporting character. Mina is even the one who vanquishes Dracula in the end.

The Imaginarium of Doctor Parnassus starts with Anton as the protagonist at the film's beginning. Then it's Tony in the middle of the film. The ending makes it clear that the film's protagonist all along was Parnassus himself.

The cop at the start of Ultraviolet looks like the typical Big Brother is Employing You hero. He goes on about the harshness against hemophages and believes the whole thing is just a witch hunt. Then, he gets infected and his partner shoots him dead.

In By The Sword, in the first half, we seem to focus more on students Erin Clavelli and Jim Trebor and their romance at the fencing school. About halfway through, they become more background characters and shown as differences in teaching styles between the real main characters, Max Suba and Alexander Villard.

The Evil Dead (1981) clearly sets up Scott to be the likeliest to the survive the story. As the story continues, he's the one who is continuously doing things, trying to save the rest of the group's lives, and eventually decides to go get help, only for the camera's focus to shift to Ash, the character whose defining moment up until this point had been getting trapped under a bookshelf. Scott makes it back...but not in one piece

Evil Dead (2013) Reboot sets up David as the group leader and protagonist. He leads the group, and takes charge. The shift occurs when Mia changes from the dead to the living, and David is killed.

Grave of the Vampire starts off with a vampire attacking a young couple (killing the man, raping the woman). A police detective, after hearing the woman's story, goes to the cemetery. So far, so good. It doesn't end well for him.

Rare antagonist example in G.I. Joe: The Rise of Cobra. A lot of fans familiar with the mythology expected the Doctor to actually be the Rise of Cobra version of Doctor Mindbender. Only at the end, was it revealed that the Doctor is actually Cobra Commander.

Citizen Kane is a double subversion. Even though Kane is the title character, he's actually the person we learn about through multiple third-person perspectives of him, since he died at the beginning. The real protagonist is Jerry Thompson, whose goal throughout the film is to find out what "Rosebud" meant.

Seven Samurai first focuses on a bunch of peasants before shifting to the samurai. The peasants continue to play an important part, including in fighting and defeating the bandits (and the ones who go out in search of samurai at the beginning are shown to have stories of their own, in particular Rikichi), and Kambei at the end of the movies states that the peasants are the real winners.

In Star Trek Into Darkness, it's actually Spock who defeats Khan, not Kirk. The movie focuses on Spock's growth as a character through Kirk's actions. Unlike most cases though, Kirk doesn't stay dead.

Contrary to what the advertising for Now You See Me suggests, the Four Horsemen aren't the leads, Agent Dylan Rhodes is, though they (and Thaddeus Bradley, for that matter) are Deuteragonists. Taken to a new level when you learn that Dylan is the fifth Horseman.

The Place Beyond The Pines: The film follows Luke for the first hour of the film, until he's killed. The film then follows the police officer who kills him and then Luke's son fifteen years later. There is no real main character.

The One starts showing Lawless, played by Jet Li. Naturally, people assume that he's either the hero or the villain, as the trailers claimed that Jet Li is Acting for Two. Lawless is killed by the real villain Yulaw a few minutes into the film, the latest in the long line of doubles he's already killed.

In Southland Tales, the final minutes reveal that the character of Boxer Santaros was the false messiah - the primer being the Taverner brothers.

In highly realistic Bollywood film Parinda, Karan is the hero who is our introduction into the Crapsack World of Mumbai gangland where his brother is a Mook for the Big Bad. Then, Karan and his wife get murdered brutally and his brother performs a Heel–Face Turn and avenges his death.

In Paranormal Activity: The Marked Ones, Jesse is the protagonist at first. The movie opens with him getting a camcorder for his high school graduation present. After he fully gets possessed by the demon, his best friend Hector takes over the protagonist role, and the second half of the film shows him trying to save Jesse from the covenant of witches that 'marked' and chose him.

Though Joseph Brody is given a lot of development early on in Godzilla (2014), his son is The Hero of the story as far as human characters go.

Even though Wolverine Publicity is in full effect, Charles is the true protagonist of the film. Wolverine even gets taken out before the climax.

Mystique is presented as a villain throughout the movie, but her motivations (to kill the man who tortured and murdered her friends) are heroic, and she's the one who saves the day and stops Magneto at the end.

In Fright Night (2011) Ed is actually the focal character for the first 20 minutes, as he's the only one to realize that Jerry is a vampire and does his best to stop him. Then he gets bitten and turned into a vampire by Jerry, and the film immediately switches all its focus on to Charlie who only appeared briefly in the first act. Anyone who's seen the original film will quickly figure the twist out, especially since the characters have the same names that they do in the remake.

Tucker & Dale Vs. Evil initially looks like it's going to be a Hillbilly Horrors movie told from the perspectives of a group of preppy college kids who get on the wrong side of a pair of sinister hillbillies while partying in West Virginia. It then rewinds the first scene to show us how it happened from the point-of-view of the hillbillies, revealing them to be the titular Tucker and Dale, a pair of well-meaning and friendly types merely intending to fix up a dilapidated old shack to use as a holiday home. We then follow the movie from their perspective as the college kids, now revealed to be mostly a bunch of smug jerks still labouring under the mistaken impression that they actually are facingHillbilly Horrors, end up killing themselves in all sorts of creative ways as a result.

"Safe Haven" from the anthology V/H/S/2 seems to follow the producer of the film crew until he is killed by the Apocalypse Cult early on, at which point Adam becomes the new POV.

Runaway Jury starts off following a man who is killed in an event that drives the rest of the plot.

At The Devil's Door initially follows a lonely real estate agent who is tasked with selling a foreclosed home inhabited by an evil demon, which seeks to impregnate a young woman with a spawn. When it's revealed that the agent is infertile and she comes face to face with the entity, she is killed off and her younger (fertile) sister becomes the protagonist when the demon picks her to carry its offspring.

Things Change uses this briefly: the opening credits are mandolin music, and the film opens on a man playing the mandolin. He adjusts the tune, tries it some more, trades the mandolin for another mandolin, plays another tune, and brings it to a cash register to purchase. Along the way, he passes by two mobsters who are spying on the real protagonist. The mandolin player is never seen again.

The Satanic B-movie The Devil's Rain stars William Shatner, but his character gets possessed and turns into a minion halfway through the film.

A deleted scene from This Is Spinal Tap has bassist Derek Smalls showing a clip from a cheap Italian action film he acted in. He gets an impressive amount of screen time, playing the sniper in an extended assassination set-up. In the end, he is unceremoniously shot, and he must admit that his killer is the real protagonist.

No Country for Old Men: Llewelyn Moss gets the attention for the first 2/3rds of the film, then is unceremoniously Killed Offscreen by a group of Mexican bounty hunters who had been treated as little more than cannon fodder previously. Sheriff Bell is the real protagonist, and delivers both the opening and closing monologues. The story is about an old man not adapting to the reality of the brutal environment he works in.

In Purgatory, it looks like Blackjack and his gang of outlaws are going to be the Villain Protagonists of the movie, and the early scenes focus on them exclusively. However, this all changes once they arrive in Refuge.

Brave New World features perhaps one of the most iconic examples of this: we are initially led to believe the protagonist of the story is Bernard Marx, as the novel focuses on him being a misfit in the World State and his questioning of its ideals. Then, as soon as Bernard and Lenina arrive at the Savage reservation, we are introduced to John the Savage and the novel focuses more and more on John while Bernard fades into the background.

The Diamond Age by Neal Stephenson features a particularly spiteful example: as the book begins, we're introduced to a thuggish cyberpunk protagonist straight out of the low-rent sci-fi movies of the late Eighties, complete with spiffy black leather clothes, skull-mounted nanotech weapons, and life of petty crime. Within a hundred pages he's been gruesomely executed for armed robbery, and his neglected four-year-old daughter turns out to be the book's real heroine.

Battle Royale tries to fool readers, making them think that Shinji Mimura will be the hero. He dies, and Shuya is obviously the hero after that point

Each and every prologue is told from the point of view of a character who turns out to be a Sacrificial Lamb. The trope really only applies to the first book, because by the second book the reader will have figured out the pattern and not expect the character to survive.

The main act is Eddard Stark, the Lord of Winterfell and leader of the protagonist-heavy Stark family. While we see many points of view, the main action of the story centers around Lord Eddard; he gets loads of character development, hints at a fascinating past, the works. And then the Lannisters chop his head off.

Viserys Targaryen is a Decoy Antagonist. As the abusive and insane scion of a royal line deposed by our decoy protagonist, he looks like the main villain of the series, but he dies about halfway through the first book.

Played straight in Ben Bova's Moonrise. The first half of the book has playboy astronaut Paul Stavenger as the main character, only to have him die about half way through. Following a Time Skip, Paul's less interesting and Marty Stu-esque son assumes the role of protagonist.

In the first Marcus Didius Falco novel, the spirited young noblewoman who encounters Falco, Sosia, seems to be the second protagonist, but then she's murdered. The actual second major character and Falco's love interest is her cousin, Helena.

The Course Of Honour appears to be Caenis' story, but in reality, it's the story of the rise of Vespasian, seen through Caenis' eyes.

Highly pronounced in Susanna Clarke's Jonathan Strange & Mr Norrell, where the titular Jonathan Strange is not introduced for 250 pages, before proceeding to gobble up most of the spotlight.

The Cavaliers Series Oxford Blood opens with Stephanie French, social climber extraordinaire, attending the Cavaliers Summer Party and having Archie, the heir to a dukedom declare his love for her. And then Archie is turned into a vampire and kills her to complete his transformation. From then on, the action skips a year and focuses on Harriet, Stephanie’s cousin. Although Stephanie continues to have a major influence on the story, most notably by being the major motivation for Archie’s murder spree.

Though he doesn't die, in Guards! Guards! quite a few pages are spent making it look like Carrot is going to be the main character of the story, having all the traits of the classical hero, before Sam Vimes takes over as protagonist, not just of the book, but of the City Watch series. This was how it was intended to be, before Terry Pratchett realised Vimes had more character and switched protagonists.

In the second book, The Light Fantastic, the story's Deuteragonist and main protagonist of the Unseen University storyline is killed off a mere quarter of the way through the book, leaving Trymon, the Big Bad, unopposed at the university.

The Zero Game: The apparent protagonist is murdered four chapters in, with the narration switching to his friend.

In the Doctor Who novel Prisoner of the Daleks, Stella seems like a perfect companion figure for the Doctor, but she gets killed off by Chapter Three. This sets the Darker and Edgier tone for the book.

This was also done in the Doctor Who Missing Adventures novel Time of Your Life, focusing on the Doctor's first adventure after Trial of a Time Lord. Angela is set up as the new companion, only to get killed pretty quickly. Instead it's Grant Markham who ends up as a companion by the novel's end.

In the classic Greek Antigone, the titular character seems to be our main until... Well, she is a Tragic Hero. Creon, the only character to have appeared in all of the Theban plays, takes the spotlight. Ergo, trope is Older Than Feudalism.

In The Night of the Generals (later made into a film of the same name), during World War II, an officer of German military intelligence is investigating a series of murders of prostitutes, and comes to the conclusion that the killer is a German general. Two-thirds of the way through the book, he confronts the murderer, and is killed. Years later, a friend of his, who had a very small role in the story before this point, takes up the case and brings it to a successful conclusion.

Jack Vance's Lyonesse trilogy begins with the birth and upbringing of the spirited Princess Suldrun. At about the halfway point of book one, however, she dies. The rest of the series divides its focus amongst a number of other characters, including her lover, son and father.

Robert Silverberg's The Alien Years begins with an alien invasion from the perspective of a resourceful pilot. He's killed in the first chapter, and the rest of the novel focuses on his brother's family.

Orson Scott Card uses this at least a couple of times.

In Xenocide, Qing-jao is the focus of the storyline on Path. She doesn't die, (she does have her OCD/godspoken-ness taken away though) but she's very handily displaced by Wang-mu towards the end of the book, and though Wang-mu appears as a main character in Children of the Mind, Qing-jao does not.

In Empire, we meet Reuben Malich, who is basically the hero of the whole book except he gets unceremoniously shot in the face about two-thirds the way through, and Cole has to finish his work. Bonus points for the paperback version of Empire because it happens right before a page turn.

Card also uses it, by degrees, in Hart's Hope, which begins centuries before the protagonist is born, with the story of a baron who overthrows his king. Orem, the hero, isn't born until roughly one-third into the 300 page novel.

The first chapter of The Phantom of the Opera novel centers around a Brainless Beauty named La Sorelli, who is given a disproportionate amount of detail describing her physical appearance, personality, and history for someone who turns out to be one of the most insignificant characters in the book. This is particularly Hilarious in Hindsight considering the losses the real heroine Christine endures to her personality in adaptations, reducing her to The Ingenue who vaguely resembles La Sorelli, personality-wise.

Andrew Phelan in The Trail of Cthulhu. It seems like he'll be something of a Supporting Protagonist or an Action Survivor, witnessing the bizarre goings on that may or may not be connected to his mysterious new employer, Professor Shrewsbury of Miskatonic University...but that's only for the first chapter. After this, he is no longer the POV character and eventually all-but-disappears entirely. He doesn't die, though, and considering this is a Cthulhu Mythos yarn, that's really saying something.

Arthur Machen's short story, "The Dover Road". The first two thirds of the story stars Professor Warburton as he tries to come to grips with a bizarre phenomenon he and his colleagues have witnessed. Warburton eventually gathers up enough evidence to come up with a rational-enough solution that completely satisfies him. The focus then turns to one of the other witnesses, Ian Tallent, who had previously taken up all of 2-3 sentences in the story. Ian notices that Warburton's proposed solution fails to address certain aspects of the case and spends the remainder of the story doing some investigating of his own.

Machen did this again in his novella, The Terror where he makes himself the main character for the first few chapters before being demoted to mere Greek Chorus.

From The Kingdoms of Evil: Pon, who appears to be a Farm Boy on his way to seek his fortune. You know, before he's slaughtered.

Sara Douglass's The Wayfarer Redemption series takes an interesting take on this. The main protagonist of the first three volumes is Axis. Initially, it seems that his love interest is Faraday. However, partway through the series, Axis falls in love with and marries Azhure, relegating Faraday to a supporting role. The first half ends on an apparently final note with Axis defeating Gorgrael, after Gorgrael kills Faraday and tears her body apart in a hopeless attempt to distract Axis. Then the second half begins with Axis retired and the kingdom in the hands of his eldest son Caelum. The first volume strongly pushes Caelum as the main protagonist, only for him to be rather unceremoniously cut down by Qeteb, turning over the reins of the series to his disgraced younger brother, DragonStar. Oh, and Faraday returns from the dead to become Drago's love-interest.

Margo Smith is the hero of the first Time Scout book. Skeeter Jackson steps in for the second and carries much of the rest of the series.

Eponymous character of Narrative PoemPan Tadeusz (Sir Thaddeus) by Adam Mickiewicz, Tadeusz Soplica is set up to make readers belive he is the main character, but as the story progress it becomes more and more apparent that real protagonist is Preist Robak also known as infamous Jacek Soplica.

Shadow is technically the main character of American Gods, in that he is the viewpoint character, but his role in the story is largely the same as that of Alice; that is to say, he watches as the plot happens around him, occasionally pausing to say, "Gosh, that's unusual," but by and large he neither actively contributes to the plot unless deliberately roped into it by someone else nor does he react as though he seriously believes he's involved. It's really Mr. Wednesday's story at the end of the day (well, there's a strong argument that it's actually Mr. Nancy's, but he's letting Mr. Wednesday borrow it).

Similarly, while Aly is the view-point character of the Tortall Universe's Daughter of the Lioness, she's just one of several chosen creating a rebellion to put the prophesied queen on the throne; the beautiful, passionate and caring Sarai. At least, so it appears for the first 2/3rds of the story, until Sarai goes off and elopes to another country, leaving her little sister to become queen.

Jin Yong loves this trope. A majority of his Wu Xia novels start around an apparent protagonist, only to reveal (sometimes several chapters later) that it is not. First comes to mind should be The Smiling Proud Wanderer (笑傲江湖) when the audience should be fooled to view Lin Pingzhi as the protagonist while it is actually Linghu Chong.

In The Walking Dead: Rise of the Governor, the two main characters are Philip and his ineffectual brother. Philip is the name of the Governor in the comics and it seems apparent that the novel is about him. Before it ends, however, Philip is killed and Brian takes on his name. Thus, the story was about him.

The original novel version of The Unholy Three has the titular, murderous three as the main characters until the fourth or fifth chapter; afterward, the focus switches to a young man named Hector who has the misfortune of crossing paths with the three. Averted in the movie adaptation (coincidentally Lon Chaney Sr's only sound picture), where the focus remains on the three even after Hector is introduced.

Cynthia Voigt's third Kingdom novel, The Wings of the Falcon, pulls this. Oriel is a dashing, brave, fantastically charismatic young man who is clearly the perfect candidate to win the heart of the princess and save the Kingdom. Until, of course, he dies in a duel about 3/4 of the way through the book. His always-in-the-background best friend, Griff, gets a rather abrupt promotion to Hero after that.

In the first Empire of the Ants book, the Ants part of the story starts from the perspective of a young male named 327, and follows him as he forms a team with female 56 and asexual warrior 103683... he is killed in the middle of the book, and his two partners take over as the main characters. And again later, 56 becomes queen and is reduced to secondary character then killed, while 103683 serves as the main character for the remaining of the trilogy.

Les Misérables opens with a book detailing Bishop Myriel's life and philosophy, firmly establishing his character. Then in the second book comes bursting through his door a certain parolee named Jean Valjean...

In Quofum, Ersa Trellenberg is the initial viewpoint-character, and seems to have all the elements — unique appearance and backstory, adventurous but responsible, UST with the expedition's only female crew member — expected in a heroic protagonist. Then he catches a lethal sonic blast to the forehead.

Fade to Blue by Sean Beaudoin appears to have two protagonists, Kenny Fade and Sophie Blue. But later in the book, it's revealed that Kenny doesn't exist. He's a virtual life that Sophie has been living.

The third book in The Inheritance Trilogy, The Kingdom of Gods, plays with this; Shahar Arameri would appear to be the main character alongside the godling Sieh - she dominates the description on the jacket copy, at any rate - but she actually gets shunted aside about 260 pages in to make way for her twin brother, Dekarta. (However, the author did state that she wanted to emphasize the plot, and thus the movers and shakers of the plot, rather than the romance angle...)

If you're a new reader of Foundation, the first novel in Isaac Asimov's Foundation series, you'd be forgiven for believing that the novel centers around the chracter Gaal Dornick as he works with psychohistorian Hari Seldon. However, Foundation is a novel that takes place over hundreds of years, and the second part of the novel (which is only 40 pages in by the way,) takes place many, many years after both characters have bit the dust. Hari Seldon is the driving force of the novel, and is frequently mentioned and appears in holograms. Gaal is literally never mentioned again.

Vernon Dursley is the protagonist in the first chapter of Harry Potter and the Philosopher's Stone where on the way to work he notices the odd manifestation of the wizard world. Then, of course, his nephew the title character becomes the hero for the rest of the series.

Joe Golem And The Drowning City has the opening chapter be from the perspective of Felix Orlov the magician and his experiences with dead spirits. He seems like the main character, but the second chapter shifts POV to his assistant Molly and she becomes the lead character throughout the rest of the book, whilc Felix is a Living Macguffin.

In Dragonvarld, it initially looks like Melisande might be the main character of the trilogy — she's introduced first, she's tough enough to defy a dragon in Chapter 2, she's got a developed love interest, and she's in line to assume the position that the first book is named after (Mistress of Dragons). But then she spends the rest of the first book needing to be rescued and protected by other characters, being sexually violated (twice), and then dying while giving birth to characters who'll be important in the next books.

The Silerian Trilogy: Josarian, the Firebringer, is prophesied to at last free Sileria. At first he leads the struggle and seems well on his way to doing this. Then he's betrayed and murdered as part of a deal to get the Valdani out, and revenge for killing Kiloran's son. Tanses takes up his role in the next books and serves as the main protagonist.

At first glace, Colin Lamb appears to be the protagonist of The Clocks. He's an "outsider" who gets mixed up in a peculiar murder case, and was let in the investigation thanks to his Friend on the Force, Inspector Hardcastle. However, Colin is actually a Hero of Another Story who is using the murder investigation to find new leads for his own Intelligence work, and Hardcastle serves as the primary sleuth working on the mystery.

In Strange Fruit, Tracy Deen is not even the first viewpoint character to be introduced, but still appears to be the protagonist for many chapters, being caught at the center of a Love Triangle and faced with a difficult decision about what to do about the pregnant girlfriend he regrets he wouldn't be allowed to marry. He makes his decision halfway through the story, and it gets him killed.

Jack from Lost was originally meant to be one of these, played for the single episode by a big-name actor- Michael Keaton being a top choice- to reinforce the audience's assumption that he was the main character. Executives decided that the audience would feel betrayed and tune out if he was promptly killed. Thus, Jack was made the actual leader of the group and a regular, thus necessitating a cheaper actor.

An early episode begins with a man drifting through space in a small shuttle, playing a radio message which details his backstory and the plight of his home planet "Gworim". Then the Lexx runs him right over, and nobody even notices due to his comparatively small size.

In the very first episode Brian Bostwick play Thodin the leader of the rebellion. He would have been the obvious hero if it had been the type of story to have that sort of thing.

Non-death example: The Thick of It begins with a minister entering his office, greeting his staff, and getting ready for a meeting with Malcolm. Then, in the meeting, Malcolm suddenly forces him to resign. Quick cut, and the new minister (and the show's protagonist) appears. Basically, rather than Anyone Can Die, this is Anyone Can Be Sacked.

Non-protagonist example: Kawalsky was only character from the film to return aside from Jack and Daniel, in addition to being made the head of SG-2. He gets more screentime in "Children of the Gods" than Teal'c (who went on to be in the most episodes of any cast member) and was played up as being a regular character in the show. Unfortunately, he gets taken over by a Goa'uld at the end of the pilot and dies in the second episode.

The Wire features an extended example: in the first season, D'Angelo Barksdale is the POV character for the criminal side of Baltimore, as McNulty is for the cop side. However, he's killed off early in the second season, while McNulty lasts through the entire show and other criminal figures step into the spotlight. This seems natural, as Baltimore drug dealers tend to live short lives.

The pilot of CSI centred around Holly Gribbs, only to have her get shot in the end and die in the next episode.

As with the book, the series opens with several rangers of the Night's Watch who end up getting killed or executed by the second scene.

Eddard Stark appears to be the show's main protagonist. He's played by the show's most famous actor and the plot centers on him more than any other character. However, he dies at the end of the first season, causing the drama to fracture into a large number of plot lines, each with their own protagonist.

Multiple layer example in the first episode of Saul Of The Molemen. The opening credits feature the S.T.A.R. Team, who promptly die seconds later in a meteor shower. Following are the replacement credits for Johnny Tambourine... who is a complete moron. Then the opening credits for The Molemen (as a funny sitcom)... and finally the real credits for Saul himself.

Season 15 of The Amazing Race had Zev & Justin, who, when compared to similar editing of teams in previous seasons, appeared to be set up for a run late into the race, including a burgeoning rivalry with Maria & Tiffany, that is until they lost a passport in leg 4.

Revolution: Ben Matheson in the pilot from this new series. The show spends the first several minutes centered around him and you would think he would become the main character who ends up knowing how the blackout started and trying to atone for his sins. Instead, he gets shot before the first commercial break, and his daughter steps in as the real protagonist.

New viewers watching Blake's 7 might assume the thoroughly likeable Varon (Blake's lawyer) and Maja (Varon's wife) are going to be major characters, as they have a lot of screen time, and spend much of the episode attempting to help Blake. New viewers would be wrong in this assumption.

24's final season plays with this: after transitioning to Villain Protagonist, Jack still played a central role in the season's plot, but the show actually gave focus on Chloe while his screentime notably became more limited in the final episodes, making the real hero of the season her. This even comes into play after Jack's Heel–Face Turn in the series finale, as he is wounded and spends most it offscreen being held captive while Chloe's efforts to expose the season's conspiracy and eventually save him are given the greater focus.

Oz's Dino Ortolani, a young Italian mafioso who's introduced as the "sponsor" of series protagonist Tobias Beecher in the pilot episode. Roughly half of the pilot's plot is devoted to him, heavily hinting at a character arc involving his struggle with his own violent nature and his relationship with his family on the outside. But then he's abruptly burned alive by his enemies at the end of the episode, hammering home the fact that Anyone Can Die in Oswald Penitentiary.

Fans of the Chris Gethard Show were told Random Messenger Bag would undertake a Hero's Journey, defending Chris from a full hour of attacks, to the point where Chris actually referred to him as the Mr. Baggins to his Sam Gamgee. In fact, Messenger Bag betrayed Chris when given an opportunity for more screen time, leaving him to fend for himself while handcuffed to a chair. Messenger Bag was in fact on a villain's journey, Chris is the true hero.

Byung Hee in Shut Up Flower Boy Band, who was killed at the end of the second episode. He was played by a well-known actor, had a Love Interest, got the most screentime, and was the lead singer of the band. The focus shifts to guitarist Ji Hyuk.

Series/Gotham: Jerome Valeska is introduced and clearly set up to develop into the arch-villain of the Batman universe The Joker. Then he's suddenly killed off shortly after the start of Season 2.

Zoe Barnes is the deuteragonist of the first season, with the story focusing almost as much on her journalistic career as it does on Frank Underwood's rise to power. When Underwood becomes Vice President of the United States at the end of Season 1, and Zoe finally begins to piece together the clues about his involvement in Peter Russo's death, one could assume that the next season would feature her as the Hero Antagonist to Underwood's Villain Protagonist. Nope. Underwood throws her in front of a subway train in the first episode of Season 2.

It's then Double Subverted when Zoe's love interest Lucas Goodwin becomes an Ascended Extra in Season 2, and seems poised to replace Zoe as the Hero Antagonist as he gets involved with underground hackers and sets out to expose Underwood's corruption. Also nope. He doesn't even make it halfway through the season before he's sent to prison for cyberterrorism after his hacker ally betrays him to the FBI.

Z Nation pulls this twice in one season. First Hammond bites it, then Garnett takes a bullet to save Murphy.

In the Mystery Science Theater 3000 viewing of Time Chasers Mike and the robots voice their desire that Nick be an example. After a few scenes, they begin hoping that Nick will cross paths with a new character who turns out to be the real star.

Crow: This... is not our star, is it? I will not accept this as our star, sorry.

Desperate Housewives Zigzagged this trope in regard to Mary Alice Young: The pilot episode begins with her having a long monologue that details about her life... only for her to commit suicide at the end of it and reviewed to us that she is the narrator while the main characters are her fellow housewives and friends. However, her death is the Driving Question of the first season of the show. Later seasons turned Mary Alice into the narrator because her storyline has wrapped up at the end of the first season but she still pops up here and then to further the other housewives stories.

Filipino dramedy InstaDad had the titular InstaDad Gabby Eigenmann, receiving top billing. However, the focus of the storylines was almost always his three teenage daughters, particularly the one who got pregnant by a high school classmate.

Music

The music video for "Weird Al" Yankovic's "White and Nerdy" (parody of Chamillionaire's "Ridin'") started out with two black gangsters riding a car (in reference to the music video of "Ridin'") before they meet a nerd mowing his lawn. From there, the focus was on the nerd.

The promotional video for Orange Range's "O2" (the first opening of the second season of Code Geass), is also this. The story follows a Samurai in love with his lord's Geisha and having a secret relationship with her, with the band members guest starring as a Ragtag Bunch of Misfits just going about their everyday lives. The samurai saves her the first time from a group of thugs through some quick thinking, but when actually forced to fight, he didn't possess the strength to save her. It fell onto the band to save them ala Big Damn Heroes and using a variety of skills from their careers (Hiroki's a thief with Super Speed, Yoh's a skilled ronin, ect.) The video ends with Orange Range as the heroes and implies that the geisha broke it off with the samurai afterward, since he wasn't her Knight in Shining Armor after all.

The first two verses and choruses of "Sk8er Boi" by Avril Lavigne center on a girl that rejected the titular character, but when the bridge comes around, it's revealed that the singer is actually the protagonist and also the boy's girlfriend.

Acts of the Apostles at first focused on the Apostles particularly Peter before switching to the exploits of Paul in chapter 13.

There are two Books of Samuel, which feature the prophet Samuel. He dies before the first one is over; the books are mainly about King David, whom Samuel appoints on God's command.

Tabletop RPG

The D&D adventure Vecna Lives! famously pulled this one. The players start in the roles of the Circle Of Eight, the most powerful archmages in the world— guys who have spells in the rulebook named after them. But the very first encounter is a Hopeless Boss Fight, all the archmages end up dead, and the players must switch to a less-powerful backup team and still save the day.

Theater

The Book of Mormon begins with charming, handsome Elder Price setting off to change the world with Elder Cunningham as his Plucky Comic Relief sidekick. By the end of Act 1 Price has abandoned his mission and Cunningham decides to step up and lead the people. Price still remains a main character, but the action is more focused on Cunningham's actions from then on.

Lead actors in ancient Greece often preferred to show off their versatility by switching among multiple roles, so there are many Greek tragedies in which a particular character is at the center of the action for the first third or half of the play, only to die or disappear and be replaced by a new character (who would have originally been played by the same actor in a new mask).

Toys

Jaller was one of these twice in BIONICLE—once for Takua/Takanuva (in-universe more than to the audience, since everyone else thought that he was The Chosen One aside from himself and Takua), and the other for Matoro. The first time, he got killed (but got better), and the second time was something of a subversion as Matoro performed a Heroic Sacrifice, causing the real hero to die instead of the decoy.

Haytham Kenway of Assassin's Creed III, is playable through the first three memories. The kicker is that he turns out to be a Templar, and becomes an antagonist for his son Connor.

In Heroes Must Die You is the playable character in the opening but is killed by Lord Murder at the end of the level. His friend Storm takes over from there.

In L.A. Noirefor the last three missions, control is switched over to his fellow marine Jack Kelso, who investigates the Suburbian Redevelopment Group as Cole is stonewalled by the corrupt police department. Cole is later killed in the final mission, and a flashback of Kelso ends the story.

One of the rare occurrences where the decoy protagonist is playable most of the game. However, the story is really how Cole's drive as a marine and a detective spurred Kelso to do the right thing and that Jack had a lot to learn from his rival, who was neither his friend nor his enemy.

Harry Mason seems to be the protagonist of Silent Hill at first, but as the game goes on it becomes clear that the main focus is on Alessa Gillespie. Harry actually has very little importance to the plot, until he kills Alessa. In two of the endings, at least.

Silent Hill 4 has two examples of this. You start the game playing as Joseph Schreiber, gone mad from The Room's influence. After the prologue, you start playing as Henry Townshend... who still turns out not to be the protagonist, as most of the game focuses on Walter Sullivan.

Happens again in Silent Hill: Origins. Travis crashes his car at the edge of the titular town and stumbles right into the tangle of events surrounding what happened to Alessa (though of course he does have to deal with his own problems as well).

And again more famously in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. The game switches back and forth between a first-person therapy session set in the present and third-person gameplay starring Harry Mason, making it look like Harry's reminiscing of Silent Hill while under therapy. The end reveals that the patient was Cheryl, Harry's daughter, and that the third-person PC was but a figment of Cheryl's imagination, distraught over her father's death many years ago. The therapy sessions weren't meant to cure Harry's trauma, but Cheryl's denial over Harry's death.

In WWE 12, when the player first starts the "Road To WrestleMania" mode, the first person they plays as is John Cena, they make it look like you're gonna have to wrestle The Undertaker, so Cena comes out... only to get Brouge Kicked by Sheamus.

In Everlong, the main character Brad was... well, the main character, until he suddenly vanishes as the evil spirits within him took over him, causing him to because Brainwashed and Crazy, take a Face–Heel Turn and end up being killed by the Big Damn Heroes. Ohnoes.

Infamously, Solid Snake in Metal Gear Solid 2: Sons of Liberty. The game starts with you playing as the familiar hero Solid Snake and investigating the creation of a new Metal Gear - Metal Gear RAY. However, the tanker he is aboard is sunken about an hour into the game and he is presumed dead. After a Time Skip, you control Raiden, a rookie FOXHOUND operative, through the main portion of the game.

Played with in Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain. You spend the game beliving yourself to be Big Boss, The Hero of Snake Eater, Peace Walker, and Ground Zeroes, and the Big Bad of the old 2D games, only for it to turn out that you're really a lookalike (A literal "Decoy" Protagonist) named Venom Snake. In fact, it turns out the character Ishmael was the real Big Boss from the rest of the series. In a way, Venom Snake is his own decoy protagonist. Extends to the original game as well, with the revelation that Venom Snake will eventually beome the "Big Boss" from the end of the original game, and we never encountered the "real" Big Boss until Metal Gear 2.

To some, it isn't immediately apparent that you're playing as Chaz in Phantasy Star IV, rather than Alys.

Likewise in Kingdom Hearts: Birth by Sleep, Ven resembles Sora and Roxas in several ways, but the plot actually revolves more around Terra, and Aqua does the more traditional heroic deeds.

In Kingdom Hearts 3D, for the most part Sora and Riku share heroic deeds pretty evenly. Then in the last world, Sora is almost corrupted by Xehanort and falls into a coma. In the end, Riku comes to the rescue by facing off against Young Xehanort, then freeing Sora's heart from the darkness by destroying the Armored Ventus Nightmare in a Battle in the Center of the Mind.

In Star Wars: Rogue Squadron 2, you start out playing as Luke Skywalker for two and a half missions, but when Luke's Snowspeeder gets shot down in the Battle of Hoth he gets replaced by Wedge Antilles, on Hoth and in subsequent missions. As we know, this is because while Luke survived, he didn't regroup with the others, so it was up to Wedge to lead Rogue Squadron.

Locke of Final Fantasy VI, while Terra gets the main focus of the story in the World of Balance, its Locke that is in the traditional protagonist role. He is locked into the party for most of the game's first half and plays a role in both Terra's and Celes's stories. However, Celes becomes the protagonist in the World of Ruin and while Terra gets forced into the ending if you don't recruit her, Locke can miss the ending entirely. He is one of the last and hardest to find party members you re-recruit and his role is diminished quite a bit in the second half. While Kitase said that there is no main characters, it's Terra and Celes that come the closest to it.

This could be said a bit about Terra herself, as almost the entire story of the World of Balance revolves around her, even if you're not playing her. When the World of Ruin comes, she has very little role as well- not much more than Locke. All of this is largely because of the non-linear nature of the World of Ruin; Celes is the starting character and re-recruiting Edgar and Setzer is needed to get the Global Airship in order to reach the final dungeon (as well as that being the minimum number of characters possible to advance in said dungeon), but it's possible to do skip everything else or do it in nearly any order the player sees fit. As a result, characters who were essential to the first half the game become incidental to the second half.

Final Fantasy X has Tidus say in the beginning "Listen to my story". You then spend most of the game hearing about Yuna and her pilgrimage, Yuna and her Aeons, Yuna's duty and her goal .. until you reach Zanarkand. This is when Tidus really screws the rules and became more the leader. Not insignificantly, Yuna eventually says "This is our story."

In Final Fantasy XII, Reks, a level 3 soldier and the brother of the protagonist, is this as you briefly control him through the castle, and fight empire enemies in attempt to save the king during the prologue.

This seems to run in his family - while the player spends the rest of the game controlling Reks' younger brother, Vaan, it quickly becomes clear that Vaan is not the protagonist. Despite filling a typical JRPG young plucky hero trope, the story is clearly centered around Ashe, Basche, and Balthier (the latter of whom frequently proclaims himself the leading man.) Vaan even comes to this conclusion for himself eventually. Vaan serves as the player's viewpoint into the other major characters, since he's largely an outsider to the nature of the political and social state Ivalice - something the other characters use for insight into their own problems. The game ends with Vaan eventually setting out on an adventure in his own right. The sequel, Revenant Wings, finally let him have the role of protagonist in earnest.

This is pulled with Golden Sun's Isaac, despite the fact he doesn't die. You begin the first game controlling him as a silent protagonist, only for the second game to shift POV to Felix, revealing that his quest was the one saving the world, making Isaac a Decoy Protagonist who is actually an antagonist (unwittingly). Then, at Jupiter Lighthouse, the whole situation is explained to Isaac, and he joins forces with Felix for the finale.

Joseph Allen in Modern Warfare 2, who is killed off in his second playable mission after leaping the Moral Event Horizon. Also implied with Gary 'Roach' Sanderson, whose role as a playable character seems to be to show off how badass 'Soap' MacTavish has become. Confirmed when Roach had a metaphorical bridge dropped on him so the rest of the game could be told from Soap's perspective.

The first Modern Warfare game has Sgt. Paul Jackson, who seems like he's going to be a second protagonist for the entire game until he's killed by a nuke. After this, the story focuses entirely on Soap's squad.

Practically exaggerated in Modern Warfare 3; the game has three decoy protagonists. The first is Derek 'Frost' Westbrook, who's the decoy decoy protagonist. His missions aren't of any critical importance to the A plot, but he doesn't die along with the rest of his squad by the end of the game. The real decoy protagonist is Yuri, who used to be Makarov's partner until his Heel–Face Turn. (Guess what happens in the end?) And then there's Soap, who was the original protagonist in the first two game's after the decoy protagonists were killed. But in this game, he dies before you even have the chance to play as him. So who's the real protagonist in the series? Captain Price. You only get to play as him twice.

Done twice in Baten Kaitos, first when it's revealed that Kalas is The Dragon, and Xelha takes over, and then second when Kalas experiences a Heel–Face Turn and rejoins your party.

The Prelude to The Godfather game starts with you playing Johnny Trapani, but he gets gunned down within minutes. The real player character is his son after a Time Skip.

Total Overdose pulls this twice. The first level is an older man... who is neutralized mysteriously. Then it's his son, who gets laid up in the hospital. Then it's the twin brother who takes up the guns and starts shooting everything.

In Hybrid Heaven, you begin the game as Diaz. Except you are not Diaz, you're just in his body and get yours back about an eighth of the way through the game you are really the real Johnny Slater. Diaz is, in fact, a major villain.

Yggdra Union starts out with a princessrunning for dear life from an enemy army, accidentally costing the leader of a band of thieves his fortress, and begging him to help her take her country back. Although you start out playing as thief Milanor and this looks like your classic Luke-and-Leia setup, Princess Yggdra becomes the player character very shortly after. Milanor himself remains a completely static character until the penultimate chapter, and is shunted into the role of mentor and sidekick. (The player does take control of him during certain points of the story where Yggdra isn't where the action is, however.)

Milanor's presence in the story at all, compared to his relative unimportance to the plot, is probably due to the need for a surrogate for male players—who might be uncomfortable at the idea of playing a game from the perspective of a (very feminine) girl.

Taken to a ridiculous extent in Kuon. For nearly the entire game, you have two phases—yin and yang—to choose from, each starring a different girl. By the time you've completed them both, one protagonist is a zombie and the other one is almost dead. The true hero of the game is Abe no Seimei, an exorcist who is only been mentioned in passing up to the point you start playing her phase.

The opening cutscene of Company of Heroes shows a group of American soldiers landing on Omaha Beach. They bravely charge the beach only to get mowed down to the last man. Then a second landing craft comes in, and it's these guys who turn out to be the protagonists.

Fatal Frame 1 and 4 do this. Mafuyu is a playable character in the intro chapter of the first game, then spends the rest of the game wandering around Himuro mansion while his younger sister Miku takes over as the main character. Likewise, Madoka is the first playable character of the fourth game, but she is killed at the end of the prologue chapter and goes on to become one of the hostile spirits who the other protagonists (Ruka, Misaki, and Choushiro) have to fight at some point.

Steambot Chronicles does a variant of this trope. In the optional tutorial stage, you play as Mallow, the hero's childhood friend.

It does it during the tenth game, Radiant Dawn as well. A direct sequel to the ninth game taking place in the post-Path of Radiance world. It seems that Micaiah is the main character of this game. Then part 2 rolls around, with Queen Elincia and her gang. Then part 3 Ike shows up and kicks ass, as usual. THEN you get his story, which leads into a plot about killing a goddess. Micaiah is still very much a major character (yes, even despite being a vessel for another goddess half the time) but Ike is given slightly higher billing and treated as The Hero.

At first glance, Sonic Battle is about Sonic and his friends messing around with Emerl, a cool robot that mimics their combat abilities. As the cast rotates babysitting Emerl and he starts developing an emergent personality, it gradually becomes apparent that Emerl is really the protagonist. The majority of Cream's and Shadow's chapters near the end of the game are played as Emerl, and the final chapter is his solo attempt to stop Eggman's plot.

Agarest Senki has Leonhardt himself. He is the protagonist of the first generation, but when you finish his chapter, he gets to be sealed in a pillar with the three Love Interests. Then his son Ladius gets to be the protagonist of his chapter but also gets sealed after his chapter is done with his three Love Interests. Same thing happens to Thoma and Duran in the third and fourth generation. Duran's son Rex then becomes THE TRUE protagonist for the rest of the game itself.

In Dead Space: Extraction, you first play as a mining employee, who first notices the necromorphs showing up. At the end of the first level, he's killed and his mantle of PC is taken up by the leader of the expedition that killed him.

Similarly in Dead Space 3 you start off playing as a new character named Private Kaufman. After the breathtaking opening, Kaufman is murdered and the game shifts to another time and location where the real main character, Isaac Clark, is introduced.

Done brutally in Halo: Reach where SPARTAN B-312, AKA Noble Six, has the same combat rating as Halo's protagonist Master Chief John-117 and, like John, is also chosen by Cortana to be her carrier. Unfortunately, Six dies on Reach.

Persona 2 starts out with five protagonists: Tatsuya, Michel, Ginko, Maya, and Yukki. However, Yukki ends up being a decoy protagonist for Jun, a.k.a. Joker, who joins your party near the end of the game.

Fate/EXTRA has one of the most tragic uses of this in videogame history. You spend the prologue playing as an average high school student who quickly gets swept up in the Holy Grail War. Depending on how many optional scenes you unlock, he manages to discover several secrets that are crucial to the future plot. Then, when the time comes for his trial in the prelims, he fails miserably. As in, he isn't even able to get a single attack before the enemy Servant effortlessly cuts him down. The prologue ends with the dying student tearfully begging that someone, anyone will remember his name and who he was. The most tragic part is, thanks to how Eliminations in the War work, no one ever will.

Not even the player. His name is never revealed, so not even the player can remember him, so he dies as alone as any video game character can ever be: cut off even from the player. Massive Player Punch when you realise this.

In killer7, the titular group are seven split personalities all within a crippled man in a wheelchair named Harman, who is the protagonist. Then the ending comes, which reveals that the leader of the seven personalities and the only one who is shown normally exist seperately of Harman, Garcian, is actually the one with the split personalities under his control, and Garcian himself is the split personality of the ruthless assassin Emir Parkreiner, and he killed Harman and the recessive six personalities, gaining Harman's power of invoking those personalities and carrying the weapons of the recessive six in his briefcase. Their counterparts created by the US military work similarly. Handsome Red, the supposed leader of the Handsome Men, fights Harman, the supposed leader of the killer7. The last of the Handsome Men-killer7 duels is between Handsome Pink, the real leader of the Handsome Men, and Garcian, which foreshadows Garcian being the true protagonist.

Hotline Miami features a hitman ("Jacket") as its protagonist for the majority of missions, but it's Biker, the boss at the phone station who solves the mystery behind the answerphone messages. Given that Richard is an Unreliable Narrator, one assumes that Biker survived their encounter, and went on to kill the villains. the sequel shows that both storylines are canon, with Jacket and the Biker having survived their encounter and both storylines progressed independent of one another.

MOTHER 3 starts with a brief prologue where you play as Lucas, and also control Claus for the first battle of the game. (After the first main chapter, Claus is never seen again until the end of the game, except for as the Masked Man.) The first main chapter has you play as Flint as he looks for his wife and kids, and then for Claus a second time. (Again, Flint is never seen again until shortly before the game ends.) Chapter 2 focuses mainly on Duster, who actually is one of the core protagonists, but not the main one of those four. Chapter 3 is about Salsa, who afterwards, is only seen again at Chimera Laboratories. From chapter 4 onward, after the three-year skip, you play as Lucas, the boy you started the game as.

Yesterday starts you playing as a young, idealistic man named Henry White, the heir to a multi-million dollar fortune who wants to use his money to help the homeless. He gets captured by a crazy but named Choke who talks to mannequins and wants to subject Henry to a witch trial (either he dies like a good person or survives like an evil and is shot), only to be saved by his friend, who kills Choke. Then, it's revealed that Henry is a serial killer who tortures hobos for fun, while Choke is an immortal who keeps coming back to life as a young man with no memories.

Reimu, Byakuren, and Toyosatomimi no Miko from Touhou: Hopeless Masquerade are this. The game's premise sets up the three as the main protagonists, trying to gain the faith of the Human Village for their own religions, but in actuality the incident turns out to be the cause of Hata no Kokoro who's on a quest to find her lost Mask of Hope, which her interactions with the other characters help her develop as a Youkai.

Clive Barker's Jericho starts off with Devin Ross as the only controllable character, who dies within less than an hour of playing the game and then commands his team from beyond.

In the XCOM: Enemy Unknown tutorial Delta squad members all have names and talk to each other and command but 3 of them die before the mission ends.

In the Flash game Innkeeper available on Kongregate, the player takes the role of Manuel, a young man whose lifelong dream is to build an inn to bring tourism to the island where he lives. His family agrees to help out. The most supportive member of his family is his mother Nanay, who acts as the receptionist. Once the inn becomes a big enough success, their rival visits them and expresses disbelief that his chain of inns is losing business to someone who doesn't even exist anymore. Manuel was Dead All Along, having died at a very young age. His mother Nanay had a breakdown and eventually deluded herself into thinking Manuel was still alive. Nanay was the real protagonist all along trying to fulfill her late son's dream.

Telltale's Game of Thrones Ethan is built up as one of the main characters as Lord of House Forrester, but he is murdered in cold blood by Ramsay at the end of the first episode. Rodrick takes his place as lord after turning out to have survived the massacre. You even play as Ethan until he is killed.

Bioshock Infinite: In the Burial at Sea DLC, where Booker Actually Comstock once again serves as the hero of Episode 1, only to be killed by a Big Daddy at the end and be replaced by Elizabeth in Episode 2.

In Megadimension Neptunia VII, Neptune and Nepgear shared the spotlight of the protagonist role at the first arc till Neptune is out of the picture to give more screen time for the Ultradimension version of Neptune. At the second arc, it's Neptune, Vert, Blanc, and Noire and when all the routes converge, Neptune's at the spotlight again. By the time the Heart Dimension arc happens, Hyperdimension Neptune realizes that the spotlight has been at Uzume and adult Neptune while she gets stuck with being a side character. She doesn't take it well.

Xenoblade Chronicles X: The customizable PC actually falls into this role. You are woken up from a pod at the beginning of the game by Elma, and that's your primary contribution to the plot for the rest of the story. Elma is the leader of the team, makes all the decisions, recruits new members, and is a celebrated veteran and war hero who is central to both humanity's survival efforts and the Ganglion storyline. It's possible to play minor side missions without her, but every story mission and nearly every affinity mission requires her in your party. The PC, on the other hand, is just an ace rookie with amnesia.

Nine Hours, Nine Persons, Nine Doors has Junpei. Notably, he's still the main character, but just before the final puzzle it is revealed that you have been playing as Akane, not him, for the entire game.

Taken Up to Eleven in Higurashi: When They Cry. After Keiichi has been the main character for three arcs, his spotlight is taken away for the rest of the series, with three arcs devoted to Akasaka, Shion, and Rena. Then the first episode of Kai focuses on Akasaka and Ooishi. Then we get an arc centered around Satoko. The eventual main character? Rika Furude, a True Companion who had received the least attention prior to the reveal. Keiichi still plays a critical role, though, as a source of inspiration and courage.

Battler also weaponizes it in EP 5. During the final battle against Dlanor, he argues that because he isn't the detective this time around, he has the right to lie and obfuscate facts as an observer. He's a subversion overall, though, as he fights to remain as the protagonist and ultimately earns it.

Fate/stay night opens with Rin Tohsaka's narration as she attempts to summon her Servant in preparation for the Grail War. She remains the viewpoint for the first three days (about two hours of gameplay), and, as a likable, manipulative Deadpan Snarker is a fairly classic Urban Fantasy protagonist. Then she and Archer get curb-stomped by a blue-armored woman... and we rewind three days, go back to the start, and see the events leading up to that from the point of view of the mage who summoned that woman, Emiya Shirou, previously a minor supporting character.

Sayaka Maizono from Dangan Ronpa is played up throughout Chapter 1 as the main female protagonist, becoming Makoto's sidekick and potential main love interest. It turns out at some point she started manipulating Makoto to become the fall guy for when she killed somebody, but when she actually tries it, it backfires horribly and she ends up as the first victim.

New Dangan Ronpa V3 ended up having Ki-bo who was designed to resemble Makoto Naegi and was put in the first official video and in the first official artwork to fool the player into thinking he is the main character. As it turns out, Kaede Akamatsu was actually the main character not Ki-bo.

Hatoful Boyfriend does this. In the first, sole human student Hiyoko Tosaka is the protagonist for the entirity of the otome segment. Then the Bad Boy's Love true ending story starts with her murder and the game switches over to Ryouta Kawara, who was previously her best friend and one of the titular boyfriends. The swap is marked by a change in the interface: the background of the text box no longer says the game's name, but says Hurtful Boyfriend instead.

Chihiro Ayasato / Mia Fey is this in the Gyakuten Saiban / Ace Attorney series. After the tutorial chapter in the first game, Chihiro / Mia is murdered and her sister Mayoi / Maya takes over her role. However, this doesn't become apparent until the third game, which makes it clear that Ryuichi Naruhodo / Phoenix Wright had been caught in the middle of an ongoing blood feud over leadership of the family's psychic channeling technique in their village, and was never truly the protagonist at all.

Webcomics

Shin-Wu from Noblesse plays a red herring until the supporting protagonist Raizel shows up. While Shin-Wu is still prominent in the Noblesse S lite novel, he has been relegated to the background of the comic as comic relief & as a DistressedDude

In The Mitadake Saga, we're initially led to believe that Zaraki Yagami is the protagonist. He's the first character we focus on and the first chapter is about him getting a weapon to defend himself with. Then, just as he's done so, he suddenly drops dead of a heart attack, showing the real protagonist, Zero Nanaya, the true weight of the situation.

In Sonichu, it seems like Sonichu would be the main character, but the attention quickly shifts to the creator Chris Chan himself. Almost every adventure Sonichu and his friends go on is something that happened in Chris's life. The comic is basically a big metaphor for how Chris wishes he could go back and do things differently.

Zig-Zagged with John in Homestuck. Even though the focus of the story changes constantly and he's absent through most of the story (as the focus shifts to other characters or even his own companions), later events in the story have put him back in the spotlight, and characters will often refer to him as the de facto protagonist of the story even though he keeps getting put in the background of everyone else's plans and actions that drive the story.

Tessa, the leader of Team Alchemical in Sleepless Domain. The end of Chapter 2 and Word of God reveal that the actual protagonist is Undine.

The sequel too ''Cool Guy Has Chill Day'' begins with new character Mr. Funk doing similar things to Cool Guy in the original, and plays a sweet saxophone solo... then Cool Guy shows up and kills him about halfway through the video, proceeding to bury his body to his Leitmotif.

Marble Hornets had Jay, who was shown as the main protagonist for 80 out of the 87 entries. Wanna know what happened in the 80th entry? He was shot and killed by Alex. For the remaining entries, Jay's "sidekick" Tim had to take the reins and settle the conflict once and for all.

In the first episode of the children's audio series, The Hanna Jo Stories, it appears that Edward is being set up as a potential main character for the series. But at the end, it turns out that it is actually Edward's brother Allen (who had only a small part in the first episode) who ends up traveling with Hanna Jo and becoming the series' second lead. Edward remains simply a recurring guest star.

The Æon Flux short "War" is built around this trope. It begins by following Aeon Flux, who is quickly shot to death. The story then follows a quick succession of new "protagonists," each displaying typical lead character traits before getting unceremoniously killed.

Played in a similar manner for Rufus in The Dreamstone with the pilot episodes establishing his role as assistant to the Dream Maker and having Took a Level in Badass to stop Zordrak. While some early episodes still play with this idea, the spotlight slowly drifts towards the Urpneys and Rufus' competence and pathos dwindle in favor of making him a Hero Antagonist no more significant than the other residents of the Land Of Dreams.

Subverted in the episode Aisle 8A. Bobby is the main character for the first act, then the focus shifts to Hank for the second act, and finally back to Bobby in the third act.

Hank and the Great Glass Elevator starts with Hank dealing with the guy's antics in a trip to Austin for Bill's birthday, then it's set up for the episode to focus on him when he moons Ann Richards (It Makes Sense in Context). After this, Bill take the blame and the rest of the episode focuses on him.

Mickey Mouse in Pluto's Judgement Day. Despite the short claiming that Mickey is the main character, it's actually his dog Pluto that is the main focus of this short. Mickey actually punishes Pluto for chasing a cat around his house, and as a result the dog starts to have a nightmare about him going to Hell.

In fact, Mickey ends up being this in a lot of his shorts due to the supportingcharacters being more popular and having personalities that work better for comedy.

An extreme example of this is the cartoon Donald and Pluto. According to the opening titles, it's a Mickey Mouse cartoon, yet he is nowhere to be seen! (It can be assumed that it takes place in his house, but that's pure conjecture.)

The Simpsons does this regularly. Often the episode starts out with a plot that seems to be going one direction, but then a side detail creates a new plot that may focus on different characters. For instance:

The episode "A Milhouse Divided" starts out centered on Milhouse's parents' divorce, but when Homer and Marge begin to have similar marital troubles, the narrative changes to revolve around them instead.

In "Blood Feud," when Mr. Burns is dying, only Bart has a matching blood type to transfuse to save him. Later, Bart is sent only a thank you note and Homer steals the rest of the episode when he objects to Mr. Burns' minimal reward and sends an insulting letter to his boss. From then on, Bart becomes nothing more than his dad's sidekick, and doesn't do anything significant except for a prank call to Moe's Tavern.

He's the character that has the most to learn over the course of this show and is the one who most needs to grow. [...] I mean, Wander has some flaws. But he's really the guy who's guiding Hater to his future or wherever he's going to end up.

This trope is the premise of Penn Zero: Part-Time Hero, with the titular character and his friends having the job of "heroes" in any given dimension where the ones who are supposed to inhabit the roles are unable to accomplish the task.

"Wherever good is threatened, heroes rise to the challenge and always save the day! Except when they don't..."

The Venture Bros. appears to focus mainly on the adventures of Hank and Dean throughout the first season. However, they (or rather, their clones) are killed in the first season finale, and the show revolves around a large ensemble cast from that point forward.

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